Our fossil beads are carved by artists in Indonesia. The raw materials come from stegodons,an extinct animal from the Proboscidea family, mammals with a trunk, found near the Solo River incentral Java. The site has been dated to the Pliocene era, 1.9 million years ago. Their name comes fromthe Greek stegein “to cover, to roof” + odous “tooth”, after the roof shaped ridges of their teeth. Theirexact relationship to other species is a matter of debate. Paleontologists once thought they were theancestor of the elephant and mammoth but now believe they were their cousin. Their bones suggestthat stegodons resembled living elephants, although larger, more robust, and with more prominenttusks. Some individuals had tusks so large and close together, their trunks had to drape over them.